By: Joshua Ceballos/News Director
By 2022, FIU’s Modesto Maidique Campus will be the site of a hotel and conference center meant to cater to University affiliates and Miami as a whole.
The Florida Board of Governors finally approved the proposal for FIU’s alumni center and hotel and conference center project on Wednesday, March 27. This comes two years after the plan was initially brought before the BOG in 2017 and the board decided not to vote on it because they did not feel they had enough information to approve it, according to University Chief Financial Officer Kenneth Jessell.
The plan is to build the hotel west of Parking Garage 6 and east of the intramural fields, around the small lake. The hotel will house 150 beds and will have conference spaces for professors and businesses to hold symposia and conferences.
Proposed site for the hotel, to the east of the intramural fields. Courtesy of FIU Office of Finance and Administration
“We have a lot of faculty and departments that do conferences and think tank discussions, and they use outside hotels for that,” said Jessell, highlighting the chance that FIU has to bring those discussions on campus.
Anyone visiting the area can stay at the hotel, but FIU students, faculty and alumni will get preference for spaces as well as an approximately 15% discount on room prices on a case by case basis, according to Jessell.
Alongside the hotel will be an alumni center, meant to be a space where former FIU students can gravitate towards and have a “second home” and interact with current students, according to Jessell.
“Most of our alumni are local and they can help our current students get great jobs, so we wanna hold meet-and-greets and career fairs at the alumni center,” he said.
The two buildings will be connected by a single lobby that crosses between them, which Jessell said it will save money in construction as they will share infrastructure and won’t have to build kitchens and water systems for two separate properties.
The hotel and conference center will cost $59.4 million, none of which will have to be paid by FIU. The University has no financial or debt obligations to the project. Instead, the building will be funded and operated by the developer Concord Eastridge Inc., and FIU will be paid approximately $210,000 in rent every year, which is subject to increase every five years.
The alumni center will cost $6.8 million to build, $1.3 million of which will come from Bank of America royalties that the University accrued through a promotional program, and the other $5.5 million will come from donations to the FIU Foundation. The foundation and the Alumni Association will run the center.
The big draw for current students, according to Jessell, will be the opportunities for internships, part-time jobs and full-time jobs in both the hotel and the alumni center.
“We have a lot of students in hospitality, finance and accounting and other majors who will have opportunities for jobs in their field at these buildings,” said Jessell. “And even students in completely different majors who need a job can find one here.”
The rent the University receives from the operator of the hotel will also go directly into undergraduate scholarships, according to the proposal.
Jessell said that the office of financial aid will get the money and decide where the money is needed, whether it be need-based, merit-based scholarships or a mix of the two.
One year after the collapse of the FIU bridge on Thursday, March 15, 2018, Jessell said he understands that there may be hesitance in the University community about having a large construction project done on campus, but that the bridge was a tragic accident out of many successful initiatives.
Design concept for the hotel including pool and parking lot.
“FIU has an excellent history of very successful construction projects,” said Jessell.” “You also have to remember that FIU is not designing nor building any of these buildings, we are only the owner of the property.”
The construction site will be fenced off, and only developers will be allowed to be in the area to lessen the risk of civilian injury.
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